ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s interior ministry on Monday dismissed the co-mayor of Kagizman district in the northeastern Kars province from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) on terror-related charges and replaced him with a government-affiliated trustee.
“Due to being sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in prison for the crime of ‘being a member of an armed terrorist organization’ … Mehmet Alkan has been suspended from his duty in a temporary measure,” the ministry said in a statement, appointing Okan Dastan from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in his stead.
His sacking was the latest in a crackdown on DEM Party’s mayors and municipal officials in the country’s Kurdish areas, with the mayors of Mersin, Siirt, and Van provinces having been dismissed on terror-related charges since the beginning of the year.
DEM Party slammed Alkan’s dismissal as part of “the AKP government’s war against the people’s right to vote and be elected.”
“Our municipalities are being targeted because they serve the people and disrupt the corruption system. However, neither we nor our people will accept the usurpation,” the pro-Kurdish party said in a statement on Monday.
"A trust is pillage, and resistance is life," chanted pro-Kurdish DEM Party officials while leaving the Kagizman municipality building in Kars province, after the Turkish government replaced the elected mayor with a state-appointed administrator. pic.twitter.com/6MpsR8I9qe
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) February 24, 2025
Since 2016, dozens of Kurdish mayors have been dismissed and sentenced on terrorism-related charges for alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara has designated a terrorist organization. The dismissed mayors are replaced with state-appointed trustees.
